Chapter 203: Taishan Special Operations Team, Training And Selection Plan
Treasure Hunting Group recommended people arrived at Shanghai Airport on February 15th under the leadership of each family.
The place arranged for receiving them is Taishan Airlines Flight Training Center.
Now the Second Phase Flight Apprentices have graduated, and the Third Phase Flight Apprentices have not yet been recruited, so it is just vacant here.
The scene is like new students enrolling, with parents from each family bringing their students, both urging and reluctant to part.
Shao Sishen said loudly: “Parents, please leave the classroom and wait outside. The General Manager has something to say.”
Axe Gang’s, Tou Men’s, Liu Family Three Brothers all left the classroom and watched from outside.
Fang Wen went on stage, holding the roster, and called roll.
“Those whose names I call, stand up and respond. Li Tie Zhu.”
The bald youth stood up, touching his head, at a loss.
His father, also a bald man, outside was exasperated, almost shouting out loud.
Fortunately, the person sitting next to him reminded him, and Li Tie Zhu responded loudly: “Here.”
Fang Wen nodded and continued calling roll:
“Zhang Yunfei” “Zhao Wanping” “Chen Suoxin” “Liu Ying Shou” “Qian Yinxing” “Zhou Pomen” “Wu Yingzong” “Liu Jin Rui” “Liu Yu Bao” “Liu Yin Feng”.
As names were called one by one, Fang Wen got a preliminary understanding of them.
He continued: “Roll call is complete. Everyone get to know each other here. In the time after, you will undergo selection training, and only those who stay in the end will become the people I need. I hope everyone works hard and strives not to leave anyone behind. Now, your culture teacher and class teacher Shao Sishen will organize the class meeting for everyone to get to know each other better.”
After Fang Wen finished speaking, he left the classroom, and behind him came Shao Sishen’s voice: “Hello, classmates. The main purpose of today’s class meeting is to enhance everyone’s relationships. We are a collective, and the first thing to do is to get to know each other.”
Outside the classroom, the parents watched with great interest. These Jianghu people basically had no schooling, and watching their own younger generation receive new-style education was full of novelty.
Fang Wen cleared his throat, “Ahem, we are here, they can’t let loose. Let’s go to my place, everyone gather.”
Then, the group left the Flight Training Center and arrived at Fang Wen’s residence.
Wine and dishes were already set up in the residence, everyone sat around together, and Fang Wen raised his glass.
“Thank you all for supporting me, Fang Wen. Here I guarantee to everyone that I will never treat your recommended juniors as cannon fodder. They will have the best treatment, the best crisis response training, and proper handling afterward. But since they have joined my department, danger is certain. I must give a reminder: you can still back out now.”
No one backed out, and everyone raised their glasses and drank together.
Gang Leader Wang spoke for everyone: “We people are all navigating the Jianghu. Although we have some money, the things in our bones can’t be changed. Those kids are the same. Rather than letting them follow our old path, it’s better to try a different way. General Manager, we think your path is good. Don’t think of them as so delicate. Who navigating the Jianghu doesn’t carry their head on their belt.”
Everyone agreed one after another.
“Yeah.” “I don’t know polite words, Gang Leader Wang said it for me.” “That’s the meaning.”
“That’s good, everyone drink and eat, let’s chat slowly.” Fang Wen smiled and sat down, everyone also sat down, and the atmosphere livened up.
Gang Leader Wang took out a stack of paper written with brush and handed it to Fang Wen.
“This is the personal resume made as you said, take a look.”
The personal resume Fang Wen required was very simple: name, background, specialties, just these three.
He took it and examined it carefully.
【Name: Li Tie Zhu】
Background: Father is from the Northwest, was a escort in Longxi, now Axe Gang killer.
Specialty: Flying Axe, Long Saber, excels in close combat, superhuman strength, inherited his father’s fierce saber technique.
【Name: Zhang Yunfei】
Background: Grandfather served in the Qing Dynasty’s sticky pole office, father is Axe Gang killer.
Specialty: Ancestral killing techniques, agile body, can flexibly dodge in combat, good at sneak attacks and interrogation.
【Name: Zhao Wanping】
Background: Both parents are Axe Gang physicians, proficient in medicine and poison, also poison masters.
Specialty: Although female, has greater strength than ordinary people, likes to use Xuanhua short axe, also proficient in medical and poison techniques.
Tou Men each brought one disciple.
【Name: Chen Suoxin】
Specialty: Superb lock picking skills, can easily open both ancient and modern locks.
【Name: Liu Ying Shou】
Specialty: First-class pickpocketing technique, hands fast as lightning, can silently take target items in a crowd.
【Name: Qian Yinxing】
Specialty: Infiltration and concealment, excels at silent movement using the environment, has his own illusion disguise skills.
【Name: Zhou Pomen】
Specialty: Specializes in house infiltration, knows building structures like the back of his hand, can quickly find and enter any enclosed storage point.
【Name: Wu Yingzong】
Specialty: Comprehensive skills, excels in all-around skills of lock picking, pickpocketing, and infiltration, the most talented disciple in Tou Men.
Liu Family Three Brothers recommended tomb raiding family juniors
【Name: Liu Jin Rui（Eldest brother）】
Specialty: Feng Shui divination, has keen intuition for ancient tomb locations.
【Name: Liu Yu Bao（Second brother）】
Specialty: Trap cracking, proficient in ancient trap techniques.
【Name: Liu Yin Feng（Third brother）】
Specialty: Mountain wilderness rapid march, traverses long distances in mountain forests as if on flat ground.
The three brothers also have a unified specialty: tunneling, skilled in using various tools to quickly dig tunnels.
After reading the profiles, Fang Wen smiled. What he wanted was this kind of talent, not soldiers for large-scale wars.
Each person’s specialty is unique and can complement each other in complex situations.
He raised his glass again to toast, thanking the Treasure Hunting Group for their support.
Taishan Airlines Special Operations Department was established, and the assessment for the 11 candidates continued.
Fang Wen designed a comprehensive agent talent assessment and training plan for them.
The inspiration came from spy and agent movies he had seen in the future.
First is selection.
Background check: Conduct a comprehensive and in-depth investigation of the candidate’s family background, education background, social relations, etc., to ensure reliability.
This stage was passed.
Next there are several assessments and trainings.
Psychological test: Use professional psychological evaluation tools to assess the candidate’s psychological quality, stress resistance, adaptability, etc., to ensure they have the basic psychological conditions to become agents.
Physical fitness test: Examine the candidate’s physical quality, endurance, agility, etc., to ensure they can cope with various extreme environments during missions.
Skills test: According to the needs of agent work, conduct specialized tests on the candidate’s language ability, fighting skills, reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance abilities, etc.
These three aspects of evaluation require professionals to conduct.
Taishan Airlines has money and connections.
For psychological evaluation, China does not yet have experts in this area and cannot form systematic evaluation methods, so go abroad to find them.
Fang Wen contacted Indiana by telegram and learned that Roberto Kerr, the telegraph operator in the Lake Van treasure hunt operation, had been promoted and gone to Europe.
With the help of Indiana and Roberto Kerr, they hired a retired MI6 agent who is proficient in all aspects of agent skills and originally taught at an agent school.
However, Fang Wen offered too much, so he gave up agent teaching in Britain and took Taishan Airlines’ Asia-Europe flight to Shanghai.
February 20th.
The Special Operations Department preparatory students who enrolled five days ago were not having a good time.
These five days, since various trainings had not yet been arranged, they were all studying culture classes under Shao Sishen’s care.
According to Fang Wen, everyone must be fully literate, at least recognize 1000 characters, and be able to organize language into written expression.
They did not reject this kind of learning, after all, without culture many things cannot be done, but culture classes from morning to night every day, they could not accept.
Fortunately, this situation finally did not need to continue today. Fang Wen brought in a man carrying a suitcase, wearing a round hat and trench coat.
“This is your Special Operations comprehensive training instructor Elfman Parks. In the future, except for culture classes and a very few special courses, you all have to train with him. Everyone stand up and salute the teacher.”
The students stood up to salute, but Elfman Parks spoke English. Fortunately, William was brought over as translator, otherwise this teaching activity could not proceed.
William himself was a military officer and communicated well with Elfman Parks, translating his training plan into Chinese and then implementing it.
At first, Elfman Parks was suspicious of the physique of these Chinese students and held back on training intensity.
But as training progressed, he was surprised to find that although this batch of young people did not look very strong, their qualities in all aspects—endurance, explosive power, reaction speed—were not inferior to the students he taught at the agent school.
After the surprise, Elfman Parks increased the training intensity, yet still found that these students could keep up with his rhythm, which made Elfman Parks have to sigh at the talent of this batch of students.
As Elfman Parks’s teaching continued, a series of agent skills were taught to the 11 students.
The students easily passed the close combat skills training and mastered MI6 agents’ self-defense methods.
They also received pistol and rifle shooting training.
The rifle training selected the German Mauser Gew.98 rifle, and the bullets were Taishan’s self-produced 7.92×57mm JS light pointed bullets, with two types: lead core copper jacket and steel core copper alloy jacket.
Lead core copper jacket bullets have slightly weaker penetration; if modified at the bullet head, they can also create Dum-Dum bullet destructive effects.
Steel core copper alloy jacket has strong penetration and longer range, suitable for long-range sniper effects.
During the shooting training, Elfman Parks discovered a sniper partner.
Liu Jin Rui has a strong perception of wind speed and direction, and always excelled in shooting, so he was given special attention and underwent sniper-related training.
Elfman Parks’s agent training also included international situation and Espionage Basics.
The international situation elevated the students’ horizons, and Espionage Basics taught them how to send telegrams and compile Morse code.
But this was not all they had to learn.
There was also airborne parachuting, special code compilation, and some ideological education.
These all had to be taught by Fang Wen personally.
For airborne parachuting, the original wooden tower sand ground parachuting was modified to higher altitude and better ground protection.
After the students completed multiple ground simulation parachutes, they would take the f.220 for high-altitude parachuting training.
For special code compilation, not every student had to learn Fang Wen’s phonetic encoding; only one trusted student would be selected to become the action dedicated telegraph operator.
Finally, ideological education.
March 20th, more than a month’s training ended.
The 11 students sat upright in their seats, eyes straight ahead.
In front of the classroom, the three instructors stood on the right side of the podium, and Fang Wen gave the graduation speech on the podium.
“During this one month of intensive training, all students were very diligent. I now announce your assessment scores.”
The students raised their heads, expecting the results of this month’s hard work.
Fang Wen read: “Li Tie Zhu, culture 63 points, special operations 82 points, parachuting 76 points. Overall score 73, admitted. Come up to get your graduation certificate.”
The bald Li Tie Zhu stood up straight, excitedly went on stage to receive the graduation certificate.
“Graduated, say something to everyone.” Fang Wen smiled.
Li Tie Zhu habitually touched his bald head: “I, uh, I, uh.” Like a repeater, his tongue stumbled but he managed a complete sentence.
“Okay, go down.” Fang Wen let him step down and continued reading.
The next 10 students all had biased scores, but overall scores above 70, all admitted.
This was a happy ending for all, also the result of their efforts; Fang Wen did not relax any standards.
Afterward, the three instructors each went on stage to give graduation speeches to the students, then left the classroom.
After the three instructors left, only Fang Wen and the 11 newly employed Taishan Special Operations Department staff remained in the classroom.
Fang Wen looked serious and ordered: “Close doors and windows, draw the curtains, enter alert status.”
This order was immediately executed. As per his request, doors and windows were tightly closed, curtains drawn, and someone stood by the window carefully observing outside.
Fang Wen said approvingly: “Stress response is good. Now let’s talk about your joining Taishan Airlines Special Operations Department. First, I need to explain why a company like Taishan Airlines has such a special department. That’s because I want to do something, things that people in the world want to do but dare not or cannot do.”
This opening remark was straightforward and honest, leaving no room for doubt.
After all, a business boss like Taishan Airlines could enjoy better life abroad and had no need to organize a strange special operations department.
Under everyone’s gaze, Fang Wen continued: “In the international situation class, everyone should have understood the current situation in China. It is at a millennium crisis, no less than the Five Barbarians chaos, with foreign powers taking turns to bully us. Although history tells us that division must unite, I can’t wait for that day. Not doing something would leave me unsatisfied. So the Special Operations Department was established. And the first thing after this department’s establishment is for you to go to the Northeast and investigate this place for me.”
As he spoke, Fang Wen unfolded a Northeast map and hung it on the wall.
He pointed to the northeast corner of the map.
“This is Harbin. The Japanese have established a military stronghold there, and people frequently go missing nearby. I suspect the Japanese are using our compatriots for human experiments.”
